Having strong cybersecurity is like ensuring you eat a healthy diet – you only really notice the negative side effects, not the benefits. This often causes businesses to underestimate the scale of damage and it’s likelihood of a potential cyber attack.
With that in mind, below are five things to consider when boosting your cybersecurity as a business.
Penetration testing
Pen testing is a form of ethical hacking. It’s a process of probing vulnerabilities within your network infrastructure and software to see if there are any weaknesses. In a sense, you’re trying to hack into your own company to see if it’s possible.
However, professional hackers are more equipped than you are, which is why penetration testing services are normally outsourced.
Things they can spot include hardware and software flaws, employee susceptibility to phishing attacks, and inadequate configuration, among more.
Employee Training
One of the main security risks of any company is actually its own employees. A lack of training, failure to follow correct protocol, and susceptibility are ways a company can be exposed. Of course, there’s only one way to improve this: with better and more frequent training – particularly an updated training process that covers working from home, which is increasingly common now. In particular, pay particular attention to a phishing training course and even conduct phishing simulations using the aforementioned pen testing services.
Updates
If you have ever come across a truly random bug on your computer, you can guarantee that 9 times out of 10, there’s a new Windows update waiting to be installed. This is visually easy to spot, but the same goes for security patches under the surface for all of the software that the company uses. So, updates must be frequent and immediate upon their release in order to retain the newest security measures.
Review procedures
It’s worth regularly reviewing and updating your company procedures in regard to cyber security. It could well be that staff are complying well with procedures and policy, but it’s simply out of date or hasn’t kept up to speed with the company’s growth.
For example, obtaining a certificate from the International Organization for Standardization in the US would be a good indication of successful compliance.
Ideally, you want 2FA, too, for passwords to be a part of the protocol or even multi-factor authentication. This will make it so difficult for hackers to bypass an additional layer of security that it will likely not be worth the attempt.
Scalable network infrastructure
If you run a start-up firm, you must prepare for fast growth and build that into the infrastructure. Having high bandwidth infrastructure that can provide enhanced security for sensitive data and applications will mean employees can more easily collaborate securely from anywhere.
Cybersecurity begins and ends with compliance, planning, and sticking to the procedures. Of course, the trade-off is that scaling these up costs more money and resources, but in the long run, it could save you time, money, and your reputation in the event of a data breach.